There once was a rap group from Los Angeles called Brother Reade. One DJ and one MC, the regular rap group dynamics. This rap group had an insane debut record that even Pitchfork liked (they gave said album, “Rap Music” a 7.4). The same group supported Wu-Tang and The Clipse, yet grew up performing with No Age and Mika Miko at The Smell. This rap group share a practice space in Downtown LA with Warpaint (but never got signed to Rough Trade). They appeared in their friends’ videos (like Neon Neon) and their first video was directed by RJ Shaughnessy.

These guys founded (arguably) the first ever dubstep night in LA called Moon Dog – granted, it was at a former transvestite strip club in east LA. These are the same guys who played live rap shows with just / only / solely two drum kits and a couple of microphones. This rap group are fucking amazing.

That was Brother Reade – Jams. F. Kennedy and Bobby Evans. Now they’re Widows, and still Jams F. Kennedy and Bobby Evans.

Jams F. Kennedy:

“Rap, since the beginning, has never been a sound. It was always a method. It never requires more than two steps.
1: Listen to the wildest new music where there are people there to hear it.
2: Interject vocally.

Much is made beyond these two principles about “real rap”, but the resulting “orthodox” artists that follow this obsession are trying to fossilize something that is inherently dynamic. Good luck with that. If you stay loyal to the generally accepted sound of rap, then you betray the method.

A Heart-Breaking Work of Swagger and G Ness is orthodox because it’s loyal to rap’s method – the method of finding the best music around and “interjecting vocally” – gladly betraying, undermining, and straying from whatever else doesn’t fit. Out with the old, in with the new new…”